The distraught mother of a gangster wife gunned down in the back of a car in a brazen double shooting says her daughter is a good person who did not deserve to die.
Lametta Fadlallah, 48, and hairdresser Amy Hazouri, 39, were shot dead in the back of a Toyota 4WD in Panania, south-west Sydney on Saturday, in a disturbing new low in the city’s growing underworld war.
Weeping and waving her arms on the front lawn of their modest fibro house, Ms Fadlallah’s mother, her distraught sister and sister-in-law defended her memory as a loving mum and good person.
‘I cannot talk. They have trashed my daughter’s (reputation),’ Ms Fadlallah’s heartbroken mother told Daily Mail Australia while puffing on a cigarette.
Ms Fadlallah had known links to the underworld and was considered ‘a gangster’ in her own right by police before she was ambushed and shot dead in a car out the front of her home in Panania on Saturday night after having her hair done by Hazouri.
But her devastated family said she was a loving mum who deserved to be ‘remembered well’.
Ms Fadlallah’s heartbroken mum (pictured with a cigarette) wants her daughter to be remembered as a loving mother and good person
Weeping and waving her arms on the front lawn of their modest fibro house, Ms Fadlallah’s mother (right), her distraught sister (left) and sister-in-law (centre) were horrified to see ‘bad things’ about her after her death
Ms Fadlallah reportedly had known links to the underworld and was ‘a gangster’ in her own right before she was ambushed and shot dead in a car out the front of her home in Panania on Saturday night
Ms Fadlallah’s mother (pictured right) is worried her daughter’s reputation is being ‘trashed’ in the wake of her death
Ms Fadlallah was in the back seat of a silver Toyota 4WD and preparing for a night out when at least one unknown gunman peppered the car with bullets, killing both Ms Fadlallah and her ‘innocent’ hairdresser, Amy Hazouri.
Daily Mail Australia can reveal Ms Fadlallah also held down a job for two to three years as an operations manager at Thrifty Car rentals in Revesby.
Staff at the store, now a SIXT branch, said she had quit in August last year but was popular among customers, noting some ‘still ask for her’.
She rented a tidy dark brick duplex in Hendy St, Revesby and her 16-year-old son went to a private Catholic boys school in the area.
It’s understood she also had an older son from an earlier relationship.
She rented a tidy dark brick duplex in Hendy St, Revesby and her 16-year-old son went to a private Catholic boys school in the area
She had recently paid to have an advanced security system installed with at least three cameras facing onto the street where she was ambushed and shot dead
The driver of the car fled the shooting and stopped just around the corner, where he called emergency services to ask for help. On Monday, blood stains were still visible on the curb
Suellen, who owns the duplex which Ms Fadlallah had rented for five years, said her tenant was pleasant, paid her rent on time, kept it in good condition and ‘there were never any issues’.
She had recently paid to have an advanced security system installed with at least three cameras facing onto the street where she was ambushed and shot dead.
‘The furniture in there was expensive and she had cameras put in,’ Suellen told Daily Mail Australia.
‘She was clean and tidy, she had a cleaning lady come in.’
On Monday, Ms Fadlallah’s mother agreed with the landlady’s recollection of her daughter, stating she was a good and reliable person.
She added her daughter deserved to be remembered well, while Ms Fadlallah’s sibling cried profusely and repeatedly said ‘my sister, my sister’.
Ms Fadlallah’s sister-in-law said the family had received many calls and thanked people for their sympathy and kind words.
The family asked to be left alone to grieve in peace.
Police fingerprinted two white cars which were parked across from the scene of the shooting and conducted line searches in the same area
In October 2021, Ms Fadlallah was convicted of mid range drink driving and lost her licence for three months.
She’d been pulled over between 2.44am and 3.30am driving her white Range Rover throughout Punchbowl and returned a blood alcohol reading of 0.102.
Ms Fadlallah told police she had consumed four glasses of wine between 7.30pm and midnight without eating any food.
On the night of Ms Fadlallah’s death, Suellenthought she heard gunshots ring out while she was watching the NRL but wasn’t sure what had happened in the street.
‘I just heard one big explosion, like a big bang, not individual gunshots and I looked out into the street and I could see no-one,’ she said.
‘Amour Park the soccer stadium is behind us and I just thought it was something from there, but louder. It wasn’t until half an hour later the police came and I heard sirens.’
Police said on Sunday Ms Fadlallah was in the backseat of a car which was being driven by a 20-year-old man, who sped off to safety as bullets were fired.
He stopped just around the corner, where he called emergency services to ask for help.
On Monday, blood stains were still visible on the curb.
Meanwhile police conducted sweeping searches across several crime scenes in southwest Sydney on the weekend.
They fingerprinted two white cars which were parked across from the scene of the shooting and conducted line searches in the same area.
In spite of Ms Fadlallah’s mother’s claims that her daughter’s name had been dragged through the mud in the wake of her death, police revealed she was known to them and had close ties with senior underworld figures.
One source told Daily Mail Australia she was ‘tough as nails’ and ‘kept up with the big boys’ – particularly after the death of her lover, underworld heavyweight Helal Safi.
One source told Daily Mail Australia she was ‘tough as nails’ and ‘kept up with the big boys’ – particularly after the death of her lover, underworld heavyweight Helal Safi
She was once married to Shadi Derbas of the city’s Telopea Street Gang and later in a relationship with Safi, who survived being stabbed 42 times in prison before he was found dead in 2021.
‘She learned the ropes over the years and wasn’t silly. Lametta knew what she was doing.’
An underworld source who knew Ms Fadlallah told the Daily Telegraph she perhaps knew too much.
‘She was right into the life. She would carry the guns for the boys, give alibis when needed and right up till she was killed mixing with gangsters,’ they said.
‘She always thought she was smart but this is the most dangerous Sydney has ever been. Killing women so openly is next level.’
A forensic officer was seen in a car as it was towed from the home of a woman killed in a tragic double shooting
Second victim ‘innocent casualty’ in targeted attack
Ms Hazouri’s family said she was a ‘good girl’ who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when she was gunned down alongside Ms Fadlallah on Saturday.
Loved ones told Daily Mail Australia that Ms Hazouri worked six days a week to provide for her sick mother in Lebanon and had been planning a trip home to visit her.
But now she is set to make a very different homecoming – with family raising money for her to be transported back to Lebanon in a casket for her funeral.
Ms Hazouri’s sister Manal revealed on Monday that Ms Hazouri had stepped up to support the family amid an ongoing economic crisis in Lebanon by sending a portion of her weekly pay to cover their bills.
Friend of eight years Sureyya Gunacti, who works in a neighbouring shop to Ms Hazouri’s salon, Jocelyne Chidiac Hair, said she had been excited to return to Lebanon.
She was planning a trip with her sister to first visit her mother and then travel through the Middle East with her sister, including a visit to Turkey.
With her poor health, Ms Hazouri’s mother will not be able to make the trip out to Australia and is relying on donations to help cover the cost of returning the 39-year-old’s body to Lebanon.
Lameta Fadlallah (left) is understood to have been the target and Amy Hazouri (right) is believed to have been collateral damage
The family want to stress that she was an ‘innocent party’ in the shooting, confirming an earlier assessment from police that she was likely collateral damage in the targeted attack on Ms Fadlallah.
‘She was the most beautiful girl,’ Ms Gunacti told Daily Mail Australia. ‘She used come here and sit and talk.
‘Or she would ring me and say ‘let me do your hair, I’ll make you feel nice’.
Ms Gunacti said Ms Hazouri had been working at the salon for up to eight years and was beloved among staff and customers.
‘She loved her work and everybody loved her. She was a good girl, not married, no kids.
‘She would normally be here at this time, it’s so sad and I feel sad for her parents.’
Ms Gunacti said the salon owner Jocelyne Chidiac was ‘very sad’ about Ms Hazouri’s death as the pair had been ‘very close’.
Colleagues at the salon shared a tribute on Sunday saying they were ‘shattered’ to learn of the untimely death.
‘We are shattered, our heart is broken, you left us too soon,’ the tribute read. ‘May your memory be eternal… until we meet again.’
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk